A guardian angel flew from South Bend to Managua, Nicaragua, in July. At the time, no one would have seen her wings, least of all Marianne Goering. Their nubs, along with her new identity, began growing when she met Hafid Cabrera, a 6-year-old boy who tried to keep his face turned away from her. Marianne was one of 22 people from Grace Church in Granger who went on the mission trip to help its sister church, Iglesia Emanuel. The Nicaraguan church of about 150 people -- in a poor neighborhood of Managua called Barrio Enrique Smith, where Hafid's family lives only a block away -- needed some help with construction. The group worked on building two bathrooms, a Sunday school room and a basketball court, as well as on general repairs, Marianne says. It was Marianne's first mission trip, and she spent her days digging ditches, tying rebar, stacking bricks, laying mortar and helping sweep up. One day, Maydalesky Cabrera, Hafid's 16-year-old sister, who had been asked to help Marianne find her way around, invited her home. There, Maydalesky's mother, Gisselle, cooked lunch for them, and Marianne, who has three sons and a daughter, noticed Hafid, "a very shy, reserved (little boy)." "I mean," Marianne says with a sigh, "he was in the kitchen hiding his face behind his mom's leg." When he finally looked her way, she could see his eyes weren't working right. One turned in so much, Marianne says, it seemed to disappear. "That put an ache and burden on my heart like, 'Man, I wish I could do something about this,' " she says. Esotropia, or crossed eyesSources: Dr. Richard Boling, American Optometric Association, Optometrists Network All week long she looked for him among the neighborhood children, "But he never came," Marianne says. When she finally caught sight of him at a baptism with his mom, she noticed how he always stayed close to her, how he held onto her hand. From the son of the church's pastor, Denis Miranda Duarte, 19, who is fluent in English, she learned that Hafid had never been treated for his crossed eyes. Something always had come up that made having the surgery done in Nicaragua too risky. When Marianne returned home, she tried contacting Dr. Richard Boling, of Boling Vision Center in Elkhart, to see if he would be willing to treat Hafid free of charge. Marianne's aunt, Wendy Seifert, a registered nurse with River Pointe Surgery Center in Elkhart, also told Boling's wife about Marianne's idea. In a recent interview, Boling recalls responding: "We'd love to do it!" But more had to be done, and more people brought onboard, between last summer and when Hafid landed at O'Hare Airport with his mother and Denis, who is acting as their interpreter, on Nov. 7. Letters needed to be sent to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua providing evidence that Hafid's problem was real and that arrangements had been made for a doctor, an anesthesiologist and an eye-care facility to donate their services. The three visitors needed passports, visas and airplane tickets, which -- except for a mere 35 cents -- were covered by a freewill offering taken during a Sunday service at Grace Church. Marianne's father later urged her to contact Congressman Joe Donnelly for help. One of his aides, Mark Arndt, facilitated the congressman's sending an e-mail that resulted in the three visas being approved the same day it arrived, the very day Gisselle and Denis had a phone appointment with an embassy official. On Nov. 12, after first fitting Hafid with glasses -- the cool kind that can be wadded up in a ball without breaking -- to correct his farsightedness, Boling tackled the more serious problem: Hafid's crossed eyes. His congenital esotropia -- which means "crossing of the eyes since birth" -- is just the way Hafid's eyes were made, Boling says. "It's a genetic thing." Hafid has strong medial rectus muscles, the inner muscles of the eyes, Boling says. His esotropia was "pretty bad" because of the way Hafid's eye muscles were structured and operating before surgery. Whenever he tried to focus on something, only one eye would work correctly, while the other would turn inward. Boling says he detached the inner muscle from the surface of the globe of each eye, let the globe rotate out, and then hooked the muscle back on where it would not cause the eye to cross. In essence, the surgery made it possible for Hafid's eyes to line up correctly. The surgery -- after Hafid was given general anesthesia by Mary Jo Verstraete of Great Lakes Anesthesia in Elkhart, who also donated her services -- took Boling 75 minutes. River Pointe Surgery Center in Elkhart donated the use of its pre-op, surgery, and recovery/post-op rooms and the services of six registered nurses: Wendy Seifert, Georgia Clawson, Tina Oblinger, Sue Catapano, Terry Wedel and Stephanie Morthorst. Six-year-old Hafid was an amazingly cooperative patient, Boling says. "Pleasant, smart, just a great kid." Without the surgery, Hafid would have continued to live "in a smaller world" because "people are always looking at them," Boling says. The stigma of the condition can cripple a child's self-image and confidence. Lacking depth perception because of his crossed eyes, Hafid often ran into things. Soon after his surgery, however, Hafid was busy playing video games, Boling says. "He just opened up. Wow! -- like a new world." Now, Boling says, not only Hafid's vision will improve dramatically, but his ability to interact with others and to do things. Marianne says it wasn't long after his surgery that Hafid wrote his name for the first time. Gisselle, Hafid's mom, says she worried that her son, on the cusp of 7, was reaching an age when "kids start to put nicknames on other kids, start bad names." They would ask her "What is wrong with your son's eyes?" but when she tried to explain, they didn't understand, Gisselle says. Hafid would fall even when he was walking on a clean, flat surface, as though "he had lost his vision," she says. But now "he runs, he jumps, he goes up the stairs," she says, then explodes with laughter. Not only does he no longer fall, he's so much on the go, "I have to be pulling his jacket," she says. Gisselle makes soy milk in her home to sell in the barrio where her family lives, Denis says. Hafid's father, who works as a real estate agent, hasn't sold a house in a year. What does Hafid think about his recent experience? Of his memory of the surgery he says: "I was crying, then I slept." And then, in the clear voice of a little boy, he adds: "When I saw my mom coming (afterward), I was very happy." He seems to smile constantly now and to always be in motion. Along with his mom, he experienced snow for the first time. They and Denis went sledding with Marianne and her family. Hafid did not want to stop, Denis says. Gisselle thanks Dr. Boling, the nurses -- everyone -- "with all my heart" for what they did for her child. These days she's walking on air. She says she asks God to make Hafid "an example for others" so that he can help other children the way people here have helped him. In her eyes, "God moved many hearts so we could be here." Marianne and her large crew of "helper angels" all contributed to creating Hafid's new world. When he's back home and returns to school, he'll be so much better prepared to tackle the challenges of learning to read and write. What Marianne would like to communicate to others is that, whether or not they believe in God, "we all sometimes have the feeling, 'Oh, maybe I should stop and help that person walking.' Or, 'Maybe I should call and help my neighbor.' " We may or may not listen, but "we all have that choice," Marianne says. (She's honest about the fact that in the past, she didn't listen more often than she did.) "All these things that happened, any ordinary person trying to do on their own would never have been able to do. (But) because of my Lord, He was able to use people -- use myself -- to make this happen," Marianne says about the role her faith played in her own decision to step forward. Her pastor, Brent Wood, says Marianne kept contacting people and saying "Let's do something." "It's an encouragement to every one of us that sits there and thinks, 'Oh, I could never make something happen,' " Wood says. But they can, he adds. And they did. Among the others helping Hafid is Dr. Brian Coulter of Coulter Family Dentistry in Mishawaka, who is donating his services: a checkup and cleaning. People from Grace Church and from Marianne's neighborhood who have had Hafid, Gisselle and Denis over for a meal or to make cookies. Or taken them to the zoo. Or dropped off food at Marianne's. Even the soccer team of one of her four children, Tristan, has helped out. Since her return home from Nicaragua, Marianne has cast a wide net of faith. The example of those who were drawn into it shows how anyone can take to heart and act on the universal message urging us to come to the aid of others, our will and energy fed by love. A simple thought kept Marianne going. "I just wanted what was best for Hafid," she says.